Page:Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant (1889) by Barrere & Leland.djvu/138

 Bet, you (American), you may be sure of it, you may safely bet that it is true.

Bever (obsolete), a slight repast between meals, an afternoon lunch, a meal eaten in a hurry. It was in use at the English and American universities. At the former the bevers consisted of a portion of bread and an allowance of beer laid out in the hall in the afternoon, a break of a quarter of an hour in school time being allowed in summer for this refreshment. The peculiar nature of the repast was a relic of the old founders' days. Old English bever, a drinking; from the old French bevre, to drink.

Bevy or bevali (common), beer; abbreviation of beverage. Gypsy pivi, drink; Slavonian pivo, beer. Other appellations for beer are "gatter, oil of barley, bug juice, ponjello"; and were it the best of Bass's it is termed by boarding-school boys "swipes."

Bewer (tinkers' slang), a woman. "Misli to my bewer"—"Write (i.e., go or send) to my woman." Young bew'r, a girl.

B flats (popular), bugs.

Bheesty (Anglo-Indian), a water-carrier. "The universal word in the Anglo-Indian households of Northern India for the domestic who supplies the family with water, carrying it in a mussuck or goat's skin on his back. No class of men is so diligent, so faithful, unobtrusive, and so uncomplaining as the bihistis."—Anglo-Indian Glossary.

Bible (nautical), a hand axe; also a square piece of freestone to grind the deck with sand in cleaning it; a small holystone, so called from seamen using them kneeling. —Admiral Smyth.

Bible carrier (common), a person who sells songs without singing them (Hotten).

Bible-clerk (Winchester), a college prefect who has to read the lessons in chapel, to keep order in school, to open the doors for masters, to keep up the fire, and assist at flogging. He holds his office for a week at a time. Bible-clerks come into